The need for quality content and how to avoid discontent

Content can be used to engage and influence consumers, yet many businesses could be missing vital opportunities to deepen their relationships. Joy Bhattacharya, managing director, Accenture Interactive UKI, explores some solutions.

Over the past four years, 90pc of the world’s data has been created. If that sounds overwhelming, consider this: that figure is likely to multiply 44 times by 2020.

For businesses, this data allows them to gather large volumes of information about their customers, including who they are and what they want. This information drives “content” – tailored material aimed at responding to these consumers.

Some businesses are only just beginning to understand user-generated content

In Accenture’s recent Interactive State of Content report, 100pc of the marketing leaders surveyed believe that internal and external facing digital content is “valuable” for meeting business objectives.

But the sheer scale of information being generated and replicated has put increasing pressure on the delivery of quality content. Consumers expect brands to provide them with relevant, correct information, fast. Analysts say users spend, on average, less than a minute on one website.

However many of today’s businesses simply don’t scratch the surface of content creation, with some focused on flash-in-the pan creative ideas that don’t necessarily have any long-term business benefits.

Others ignore their content entirely – allowing it to sit stale, robotic and unengaging across their platforms, missing vital opportunities to deepen their relationship with the user.

At the heart of these issues lies misunderstanding. For a start, there’s a lack of a universal terminology. Some businesses are only just beginning to understand user-generated content, which has been a central pillar in content creation for years.

Similarly, the merging of social is not a new trend – social media cannot exist without content. Indeed, content is everything; it can be used to engage, influence and direct consumers. From content marketing through to website collateral, it sits at the kernel of a successful business strategy.

Content as product

The most successful businesses in the world are defined by the fusion of cutting-edge products with best in class content that helps tell a story.

Currently, content is seen as “housekeeping” for most brands, rather than a strategic asset that can be leveraged like a product and used to drive engagement and positive customer experiences. The sooner businesses recognise that it is much more than a campaign or eye-catching idea, the stronger their brand equity will be.

In order to do this effectively, firms need to adjust their organisational structure and business strategy to create, implement and maintain engaging and effective content that goes beyond a flash moment.

Public debates, such as the recent focus on sugar in the UK, offer businesses an opportunity to use effective content to help their consumers understand the ingredients in the food they purchase.

Shoppers are desperate for succinct and useful data to inform their nutritional choices and developing innovative content would help companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Successful content boosts the bottom line – once CEOs apply the same rigour to their content as they do to their product development, their business will reap the rewards.

How to capitalise on content

1. Define a coherent strategy that drives intelligent content

In CMI’s B2B 2016 content marketing report, less than half of the businesses surveyed were clear on what an effective or successful content marketing programme looks like.

Starting with a detailed content evaluation is the best way to assess your existing assets and judge how effective your content really is throughout the customers’ journey. Content needs a beginning to end strategy, integrated across all channels, in order to be future proof.

2. Prioritise agile, global content

Consumers’ engagement with brands is agile; it goes far beyond just their tablet or mobile, so content needs to be portable and modular.

“Format free” content that is scalable and repeatable works best, particularly in today’s global marketplace. At Accenture we use the mantra “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Retire” to challenge ourselves to develop an end-to-end international solution.

3. Nurture the skills that deliver

The digital revolution has given everyone the opportunity to be a publisher – but this can create a lot of noise rather than quality output. Often businesses rely on expensive agency partners to create “campaigns’ because they lack the skilled in-house teams to manage, deliver and optimise content.

It’s no surprise that 74pc of organisations that participated in Accenture’s Interactive State of Content report expect to increase the use of decoupling and outsourcing approaches for critical content management and production approaches, over the next few years.

Firms should upskill their own staff and build a cross-functional content team that moves away from traditional and siloed marketing, communications and digital functions.

4. Develop rigorous measurement

According to a report from Sirius Decisions last year, 70pc of marketing content goes unused. Companies pour a vast amount of investment into content creation but it is not always cost efficient, especially when so many struggle to track ROI.

Indeed our own Accenture research, of more than 1,000 senior leaders in the marketing, digital and advertising industry, found 73pc of those questioned spend more than $50 million on content management alone, but only 45pc feel “very confident” that their digital content investments will achieve business objectives.

Businesses need help to build the tools necessary to analyse and measure the impact of their content, so they can effectively assign investment.

By applying these four principles, hopefully we will see more organisations will lead the way in good content creation.